No action against fat cat execs: Tomana

PROSECUTOR General Johannes Tomana has revealed that his department has not moved to prosecute executives accused of corruptly awarding themselves hefty pay packages at struggling State-owned enterprises.

Tomana spoke as Local Government Minister Ignatius Chombo reversed the suspension of Harare Town Clerk Tendai Mahachi.

Mahachi was said to be taking home a basic salary of about $37,000 while general workers went without pay and the council struggles with service delivery.

Chombo said Saturday that allegations Mahachi and top council executive took home about $37,000 each were not correct but would not say how much the Town Clerk actually earned.

The Zanu PF minister however, disclosed that Mahachi’s pay had been reduced to $14,874 and a housing allowance of $2500 with the other perks scrapped.

Meanwhile, despite the public outrage over reports executives at ZBC and a publicly-owned health insurer may have corruptly bumped up their salaries, Tomana said no action had yet been launched to prosecute them.

“We will only act after the police. We will not put the cart before the horse. As the prosecuting authority we cannot be found to jump the gun,” Tomana told the Sunday Mail.

“There are no dockets that have been brought to us so far. We are only reading about the issues in the newspapers.

“We will work on the dockets that are presented to us by the police and then decide if the allegations are of a criminal nature and if they are worthy of prosecution.”

“We are monitoring the process. But from what we can see, the relevant ministries are still working on the matter so it might be premature for us to be involved at the moment so we will just continue monitoring as the events unfold,” he said.

Tomana added that anyone who felt that a crime had been committed was welcome to report to the police.

“If there are people who feel that a crime was committed, they should go to the police and report. It is their constitutional right to do so. They should also take the requisite evidence to the police. That will facilitate prosecution,” he said.

COMMENTS

If these Mugabe appointed CEOs who awarded themselves obscene salaries did not commit any crime why are they being fired and having salaries reduced? Zanu Pf is a party of thieves hell bent on destroying the Zimbabwean economy. Is there no limit to their sense of irresponsibility. Imbwa dze Zanu dzinonyadzisa chaizvo